Learning More About San Francisco’s New Leader

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/KCBS) — By most accounts, Ed Lee has stayed under the radar for his entire career.

Now, he’s very much in the public eye, as San Francisco’s new mayor.

KCBS’ Mike Sugerman Reports:

San Francisco has become rather accustomed to high profile mayors: Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown for the past 16 years.

“Are you resident of San Francisco?” KCBS’ Mike Sugerman asked during his travels, About the Bay.

“Yes,” the man responded.

“Who’s the mayor?”

“Um, he was just, the board (of supervisors) just elected him, um, oh!” the man struggled to answer Sugerman’s question.

“No idea,” another woman quickly admitted.

For the record, San Francisco’s new mayor is Ed Lee.

Lee himself gave a good-natured laugh when Sugerman showed him a Facebook page devoted to his moustache.

“My daughters were reading them to me as we were in Hong Kong and after I made the decision and these sites started popping up and they were of course laughing very hard, sometimes with tears in their eyes, they were so funny,” he remarked about the social media excitement that’s grown in the past few days.

“And the difference between you and Gavin Newsom, tell me the biggest difference you see,” Sugerman wanted to hear from Lee.

“Yeah, well he’s taller,” he lightheartedly responded.

Not only does Lee have a good sense of humor, he also has nearly two-dozen years under his belt as a bureaucrat. He’s proud of his reputation for frugality.

“I’ve had a family van, a Chrysler minivan that’s been in the family for so long it’s about to be donated,” he said. “It’s a 1995.”

He had asked for an electric car for his official vehicle, just one more sign that it really will be a different kind of City Hall in San Francisco for the next year.